My method is simply to read fewer books, at a slower pace, and come to know them intimately well. If anything resembling the methods described in this video comes in at any stage of the process, it's only at the initial stage of research to carefully select which books to read. Maybe the books still occasionally aren't what I expect them to be; that's alright. I long ago came to terms with the fact that no individual human being can read even a small fraction of the world's worthwhile intellectual work in their lifetime. So I just try to learn some things that interest me as well as I possibly can, and reshape my projects to interact better with what I'm learning rather than the other way around.
WRITING IN THE BOOK!!! The guy is a Visigoth. I think maybe literally, since post-its, or whatever the generic term is, have been around for a while. You can also stick them out and choose different colors if you're more diligent than I ever was.
Wow this was really interesting on multiple levels. Also it never really occurred to me the depth and breadth of information and research you do for every video, not to even mention that you do this outside of your work, which must also take a huge amount of your energy
I think this is also interesting to me because I never learnt to skim read. Or my brain seems resistant to being able to skim read. So to hear this approach makes a few of my brain holes tingle in interesting ways
Great vid. But I wonder if such an approach is like taking vitamins vs eating a healthy diet and whether we risk inadvertently losing something in trying to "hack" the system. For example, when it comes to academic writing, a lot of my videas for essays etc. come from wading through books in (excrutiating) detail in a way that is totally a loggerheads to such a rationalististic surgical laser focused approach. It's like part of the critical thinking and creative/original argumentation process uses reading not as an "idea extraction" tool but as a vehicle for engaging with the subject and cultivating thought in it.
Wow I loved the way you articulated that! I think there is more to that experience I want to add, but, maybe appropriately, it’s currently taking the shape of a wordless tangled swirl of notions
Great stuff, thanks for the video! I've never been terribly sentimental, so I took to writing in books early. Its of course different it its a book on loan, libraries have to buy new copies for damage in that case, but it helps me parse whats being said. One trick i like is to highlight evocative words out of a sentence or paragraph to essentially rewrite an abridged version of it, like blackout poetry kinda.
For youtube videos you can use a transcriber. Otherwise you can watch the first part of a video chapter then skip to the last part to still get some of that hourglass benefit.
I guess *that* book has been making the rounds for various YTers. Your technique sounds like it would be worth it to use for my copy of it. Since I liked it that much, going through it again will be worth it. Thanks for the advice.
I'm about to read The Rings Of Saturn by W.G Sebald. I saw the documentary about it and it really sold it to me and with that in mind this seems like the perfect book to put this to the test. It's essentially a book that was meant to be meandered through.
This video reminds me of a book called “How to read a book: the practical guide to intelligent reading” by Mortimer J. Adler. I highly recommend it if you want to find put more about this subject.
Ok, now that I got the "first" comment out of my system (always dreamed of leaving one in this channel, haha), I loved this video for lots of reasons... Loved the book used as an example. I never thought of indexes that way either. I'm still resistant to the idea of writing on book pages - I'll vigorously write somewhere else though. And I found it interesting that you didn't mention how much more useful PDFs are for finding information given the search function - and also that while it's true that information is harder to find in videos, TH-cam's "show transcript" is a LIFE SAVER in that regard.
Good points, all around! :D I do wish that I'd found a PDF reading device that I actually like using. Some folks get a lot of mileage out of tablets, but they just slide off my brain.
@@THUNKShow oohh I see. Yeah I don't generally like reading on electronic devices but when reading technical stuff I get by on desktop / laptop screens.
My approach has always been to read for the thesis statement, if I know that info, to skip over it and if I don't, to read to understand and highlight along the way. Since I use e-readers, I re-read the highlighted text (and now) put the key points into Obsidian and then re-read my notes later. I get the same three readings but in a different way. Good stuff, though.
I am migrating several sources to obsidian now. There are a few very good things that I have read about it that I do not believe, like the claim that it works as our brain or the at least externally perceived zealot methodologies that seem to be a hype over wiki sites at its core. But the tool really makes input and refactoring thoughts and structures a first class citizen, and that is all I want for now.
Do people, other than boomers, still read books instead of ebooks? I buy my ebooks from the Play store and what frustrates me to no end is that some publishers don't allow to automate highlighted and annotated text to Google Drive. So you have to manually copy paste them like a caveman
OH NO! :( I'm so sorry - my method for cross-checking Patreon subs is hinkey and weird. There's no minimum, I just screwed up! X( I've put your name in the video description, & I'll be sure to include you on the next one!
The eternal zoomer. “Why would I use my own discretion to extract information I need from a book when I could just rely on something else to decide what I should know and tell it to me?”
ChatGPT has shown a remarkable capacity for spitting out answers that seem plausible, but aren't the least bit true. 😜 I think you're right that LLM-like tools may facilitate summarizing text, but even if we could be sure those summaries faithfully represented the desired content, they can't understand it for you! I think there's always going to be value in engaging with the original work, wherever feasible!
@@Michelle_Wellbeck the problem is that by trusting a third-party to tell you something, their mistakes will be yours without you being able to tell whether they have made a mistake or not. The answer to your question is the same as the answer to "Won't being rich obviate this skill? Once it becomes possible to hire someone to parse a book's contents would you do it?" - unless of course you think chatgpt-like tools are or could ever be absolutely flawless, which I doubt.
@@THUNKShow It's not a problem as long as we're in the territory of basic scientific factuity, of course even this is suspect from the point of view of Science Studies Anthropology (Latour). Moreover, once we understand that any reading or interpretation is inherently motivated - where we can't find an 'objective' meaning but instead is found in the interpretation of the reader reading through biased personal and cultural lenses (Barthes) - are we then able to suspect any interpretation given by an AI, we will ask; can I trust this AI as my fiduciary? Sadly, the system of technology where any productivity available in the short term will be exploited (Ellul) means that this question will be sidelined.
Hello human! This is also an appreciation message. I want to share that I have been consuming your content while I am at the gym in order to both learn and regulate my pace: whenever I see that I lose track of your ideas thread I understand that I need to pace down and rewind. This episode feels a little bit different though, even if it is very actionable, I am somehow missing the usual counterpart or food for thought you use to leave for us. Said that, I am profoundly grateful for your technique, insights and topics.
My method is simply to read fewer books, at a slower pace, and come to know them intimately well.
If anything resembling the methods described in this video comes in at any stage of the process, it's only at the initial stage of research to carefully select which books to read. Maybe the books still occasionally aren't what I expect them to be; that's alright. I long ago came to terms with the fact that no individual human being can read even a small fraction of the world's worthwhile intellectual work in their lifetime. So I just try to learn some things that interest me as well as I possibly can, and reshape my projects to interact better with what I'm learning rather than the other way around.
Great channel. Keep it up
WRITING IN THE BOOK!!! The guy is a Visigoth. I think maybe literally, since post-its, or whatever the generic term is, have been around for a while. You can also stick them out and choose different colors if you're more diligent than I ever was.
Wow this was really interesting on multiple levels. Also it never really occurred to me the depth and breadth of information and research you do for every video, not to even mention that you do this outside of your work, which must also take a huge amount of your energy
I think this is also interesting to me because I never learnt to skim read. Or my brain seems resistant to being able to skim read. So to hear this approach makes a few of my brain holes tingle in interesting ways
Good timing! I'm 1/2 way through that giant audible on The Dawn Of Everything. ;)
Great vid. But I wonder if such an approach is like taking vitamins vs eating a healthy diet and whether we risk inadvertently losing something in trying to "hack" the system.
For example, when it comes to academic writing, a lot of my videas for essays etc. come from wading through books in (excrutiating) detail in a way that is totally a loggerheads to such a rationalististic surgical laser focused approach.
It's like part of the critical thinking and creative/original argumentation process uses reading not as an "idea extraction" tool but as a vehicle for engaging with the subject and cultivating thought in it.
Wow I loved the way you articulated that! I think there is more to that experience I want to add, but, maybe appropriately, it’s currently taking the shape of a wordless tangled swirl of notions
Great stuff, thanks for the video!
I've never been terribly sentimental, so I took to writing in books early. Its of course different it its a book on loan, libraries have to buy new copies for damage in that case, but it helps me parse whats being said. One trick i like is to highlight evocative words out of a sentence or paragraph to essentially rewrite an abridged version of it, like blackout poetry kinda.
For youtube videos you can use a transcriber. Otherwise you can watch the first part of a video chapter then skip to the last part to still get some of that hourglass benefit.
I guess *that* book has been making the rounds for various YTers. Your technique sounds like it would be worth it to use for my copy of it. Since I liked it that much, going through it again will be worth it. Thanks for the advice.
I'd read Newton's autobiography and take notes while at it 🐾
I was fighting for my habit to write in my books! Glad to know I'm in a good company))
Thanks for the great content 👌
I'm about to read The Rings Of Saturn by W.G Sebald. I saw the documentary about it and it really sold it to me and with that in mind this seems like the perfect book to put this to the test. It's essentially a book that was meant to be meandered through.
Thank you. I will definitely apply this to reading political theory.
Same here! My theory tsundoku is...taller than I am. 😅
This video reminds me of a book called “How to read a book: the practical guide to intelligent reading” by Mortimer J. Adler.
I highly recommend it if you want to find put more about this subject.
Looking forward to your video on The Dawn of Everything!
Ok, now that I got the "first" comment out of my system (always dreamed of leaving one in this channel, haha), I loved this video for lots of reasons... Loved the book used as an example. I never thought of indexes that way either. I'm still resistant to the idea of writing on book pages - I'll vigorously write somewhere else though. And I found it interesting that you didn't mention how much more useful PDFs are for finding information given the search function - and also that while it's true that information is harder to find in videos, TH-cam's "show transcript" is a LIFE SAVER in that regard.
Good points, all around! :D I do wish that I'd found a PDF reading device that I actually like using. Some folks get a lot of mileage out of tablets, but they just slide off my brain.
@@THUNKShow oohh I see. Yeah I don't generally like reading on electronic devices but when reading technical stuff I get by on desktop / laptop screens.
My approach has always been to read for the thesis statement, if I know that info, to skip over it and if I don't, to read to understand and highlight along the way. Since I use e-readers, I re-read the highlighted text (and now) put the key points into Obsidian and then re-read my notes later. I get the same three readings but in a different way.
Good stuff, though.
I've heard good things about Obsidian! I'm trying to invest a little in Zotero, as Edwards recommends - we'll see if it pays off. :D
I am migrating several sources to obsidian now. There are a few very good things that I have read about it that I do not believe, like the claim that it works as our brain or the at least externally perceived zealot methodologies that seem to be a hype over wiki sites at its core. But the tool really makes input and refactoring thoughts and structures a first class citizen, and that is all I want for now.
Use sticky notes if you're anxious about writing on the book
Might not have discovered certain valuable sections without reading cover to cover, but maybe the trade off is worth it
Love ur channel man!
Thanks!
Do people, other than boomers, still read books instead of ebooks? I buy my ebooks from the Play store and what frustrates me to no end is that some publishers don't allow to automate highlighted and annotated text to Google Drive. So you have to manually copy paste them like a caveman
Hey btw my name's not on the list of Patreon supporters :( is there a minimum contrib needed? I don't remember reading there was
OH NO! :( I'm so sorry - my method for cross-checking Patreon subs is hinkey and weird. There's no minimum, I just screwed up! X(
I've put your name in the video description, & I'll be sure to include you on the next one!
@@THUNKShow aaa thank you
You should use gpt-4 to get an idea of a subject. It will make your exploration more efficient (but it won't replace it)
First!
Won't ChatGPT obviate this skill? Once it becomes possible to ask chatgpt about a book's contents would you use it?
The eternal zoomer. “Why would I use my own discretion to extract information I need from a book when I could just rely on something else to decide what I should know and tell it to me?”
@@sigiligus I think you have a misconception. With ChatGPT you query (prompt) what it is you're looking for in the contents of the book
ChatGPT has shown a remarkable capacity for spitting out answers that seem plausible, but aren't the least bit true. 😜
I think you're right that LLM-like tools may facilitate summarizing text, but even if we could be sure those summaries faithfully represented the desired content, they can't understand it for you! I think there's always going to be value in engaging with the original work, wherever feasible!
@@Michelle_Wellbeck the problem is that by trusting a third-party to tell you something, their mistakes will be yours without you being able to tell whether they have made a mistake or not.
The answer to your question is the same as the answer to "Won't being rich obviate this skill? Once it becomes possible to hire someone to parse a book's contents would you do it?" - unless of course you think chatgpt-like tools are or could ever be absolutely flawless, which I doubt.
@@THUNKShow It's not a problem as long as we're in the territory of basic scientific factuity, of course even this is suspect from the point of view of Science Studies Anthropology (Latour). Moreover, once we understand that any reading or interpretation is inherently motivated - where we can't find an 'objective' meaning but instead is found in the interpretation of the reader reading through biased personal and cultural lenses (Barthes) - are we then able to suspect any interpretation given by an AI, we will ask; can I trust this AI as my fiduciary? Sadly, the system of technology where any productivity available in the short term will be exploited (Ellul) means that this question will be sidelined.
When you spend too much time reading, and forget to live.
That's what poetry is for! :P
In before people start suggesting...
...
ChatGPT
Hello human! This is also an appreciation message. I want to share that I have been consuming your content while I am at the gym in order to both learn and regulate my pace: whenever I see that I lose track of your ideas thread I understand that I need to pace down and rewind. This episode feels a little bit different though, even if it is very actionable, I am somehow missing the usual counterpart or food for thought you use to leave for us. Said that, I am profoundly grateful for your technique, insights and topics.